Smart Girls Think Twice (22 page)

Lulu was right. Some of the posts claimed Jake had lost his edge after the climbing accident eighteen months ago. Since then, most of his sponsors had backed out after his injuries kept him from competing. Meanwhile, the media was hot to track him down and get the real story about the death of his best friend Andy Kent on that mountain in Peru.

She pulled up several media reports around the time of his accident and discovered that the press had accused him of cutting the rope to save himself. The third climber, a British friend of Andy’s who was there, was quoted as saying, “It looked like the rope was severed, but that could have been done by a piece of ice in the avalanche. Jake said he didn’t do that, so I guess I believe him.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement and the press had pounced on that and attacked Jake even more intensely.

No wonder he’d been angry when he’d accused her of being a reporter wanting an interview with him.

Despite those insinuations and accusations by the media, many of his fans were still loyal followers of Slayter the Slayer. A majority of those fans were female, drooling over Jake’s looks or his body. They wondered if the speed freak on the mountains was equally fast in bed.

Some women even claimed to have hooked up with him at various events. They posted photos of themselves with him kissing or hugging them. They were all as beautiful as the woman in Nick’s Tavern.

Emma’s research only reinforced what she’d known when she’d seen Jake fondling that woman’s breast in the bar tonight. She’d been an idiot not to have checked him out online before. But like a romantic fool, she’d wanted him to confide in her on his own.

Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen.

She’d given Jake plenty of opportunity to talk to her. Instead he’d told her very little, claiming he preferred action to words. Obviously. That was clear by the photos posted online with busty snow bunnies fawning over him like girls in a harem. He was caressing them, not conversing with them.

Emma compared herself to the other women and knew there was no contest.
ot even close
, her dulled brain told her. The same thought kept repeating itself over and over again:
How
could you be so stupid?

The snow bunnies would be coming out of the woodwork now that Liam had posted Jake’s location online.

She shouldn’t care, but she did. Emma had never been the kind to turn her feelings off and on at will. But then she’d also never been the kind to fall for a guy so fast and so damn hard.

The sociologist in her clinically continued the research, searching for answers. A link from one of the sites took her from Jake’s sex life to more information about his sport activities, where one tiny miscalculation or one bad turn of the dice could snuff out a life.
The need
for adventure is hard-wired into some people.
She knew that. She just didn’t know why.

Which led her to more research and notes on risk takers. None of which reassured her about Jake or stopped the pain she felt inside, but at least her inner academic diva was distracted by the information she was gathering.

Maybe her encounter with Jake was fate’s way of pushing her to write the book proposal after all.

Her heart wasn’t in it, but her head battled on, making her polish her notes long into the night and finally push the Send button to the assistant editor’s e-mail address.

The screen returned to a website with a photo of a grinning Jake looking sexy as he stood with a trophy and a babe beside him.

A knock on her door made her jump a foot.

“It’s me,” Jake said through the door.

“Go away!”

“I saw your light was still on so I know you’re not sleeping. I just got off work.”

She wondered if he’d just gotten off the half-naked snow bunny.

“Come on, open up,” he coaxed her, his voice a powerful influence on her even through a few inches of door. “We need to talk. Someone said they saw you rush out of the bar.”

Emma yanked open the door. “Did Roy tell you?”

“Roy?” Jake stepped inside and carefully closed the door behind him. “No. Was he there?”

“I can see how you wouldn’t notice that, seeing that you were distracted by a bare-breasted woman hanging all over you.”

“Is that why you left?” Jake said.

“I left because you’re a man who goes for girls like her.” Was her voice quivering? How sappy was that? She cleared her throat and tried again. “You’re not the kind to go for a woman like me.”

“Wrong.” Jake pulled her close so she could feel how much he wanted her.

She wasn’t that easily impressed. She stepped away from him. “Then you’re the kind of man to go for any woman.”

“I don’t want any woman. I want you.”

“And that’s why you were fondling her breast?”

“She wanted me to autograph it.”

“You told me you don’t do autographs. Apparently you only do them if a woman offers her bare breast to you.”

“That’s not true. She walked into the bar. I don’t know how she found me. She hangs around all the greatest shows on snow and hooks up with the winners. I told her tonight that I wasn’t interested.”

“So you know her.” It wasn’t a question since she already suspected the answer. “You hooked up with her in the past, didn’t you?”

“That was before my accident, before I came here, before I met you.”

“I spent the past hour researching you on the Internet.”

“Don’t believe everything you read.”

“Even if I only believe half of it, that’s enough.”

“Enough to what?”

“Enough to know we’ve got nothing in common.”

“That’s not true.” He took her in his arms, her body pressed tightly against his. “You want me. I want you.”

“You’re not the kind to want me once you’ve had me.” Her voice was steady even if her emotions weren’t.

“Wrong again. Let me prove it. Let me prove you wrong.”

“Why?” She wiggled out of his embrace. “So you can prove that you’re a winner? Risk takers like you always have to come out winners, right? That’s why you want to have sex with me. So you can win.”

“I don’t give a rat’s rectum about winning tonight,” he growled.

“That’s a lie and you know it. I’m not some mountain you can conquer.”

“I know that. I also know that you’re the first thing to make me feel alive in a very long time.”

There was no faking the vulnerability in his brooding eyes.

She looked away.

“Emma.” He whispered her name as if it held all the treasures in the world.

She didn’t realize until that moment how much she desperately wanted to believe him. “I’m not one of your groupie snow bunnies.”

“No, you’re not. You’re a kick-ass sociologist with the power to bring me to my knees.” He lowered his mouth to hers. “Let me show you,” he murmured against her lips.

She wasn’t easily convinced, but in the end Jake had some very persuasive arguments. His hungry kiss was very convincing. She boldly greeted the velvety insistence of his tongue with her own. His fingers trembled as he reached under her favorite polo shirt to undo the fastening of her bra.

The possibility that she could make a bad boy like him lose control was incredibly sexy.

She had to investigate further.

Leaning into him, she tugged his black T-shirt from his dark jeans and trailed her fingertips across the bare strip of skin she’d revealed. The tiny caress had him growling his approval.

Jake back-stepped her toward her futon, which was open in preparation for her going to bed.

When she fell onto it, he followed her down, twisting so that she was on top of him. She knew he did that so she wouldn’t feel confined and panic because of the mugging. That knowledge made her want him even more. She pulled off her shirt and bra and shimmied out of her jeans.

Jake tugged her closer, so that her bare breast hovered right above his mouth. He teased the tip of her nipple with his tongue until she shivered with delight. When his mouth surrounded her she arched against him.

After that, things escalated quickly. His clothes came off and a condom went on. She pulled him down to her, silently telling him that she was ready for him. He positioned her so that she sat astride him. Running a hand up her thigh, he slipped his skillful fingers over and into her moist feminine core, propelling her closer and closer to climax.

Only when he was sure she was ready did he slowly ease into her until he was buried deep within her. She lifted her hips and slid down again, creating a friction that drove her wild.

He set the pace and she matched him surge for surge.

He encouraged her to experiment with angles and movements to maximize her pleasure.

This was all new sexual territory for Emma, and she explored it with joyful enthusiasm.

She could feel the erotic tension building deep within her until she was propelled into a climax so blissfully powerful it was almost beyond belief.

Jake gave one final thrust before he came too.

Ten minutes later Emma was still speechless.

Jake wasn’t. “Are you hungry?”

She eyed his bare body warily. “Don’t you need some recovery time?”

“I was talking about food, but if you want something else . . .” He nuzzled her neck until she giggled. “Are you laughing at me?” he demanded.

“With you. I was laughing
with
you.”

“You’re the one giggling, not me.”

“I can fix that.” She reached out to tickle him. He stoically remained unmoved until her hand accidentally on purpose brushed his arousal. “Oops.”

He had her flat on her back an instant later. She tried to be helpful by assisting him with a new condom, but all she did was make him groan with need. “You’re killing me,” he growled.

“
Le petite morte.
A little death. French for”—she gasped with delight as he entered her with one powerful thrust—“orgasm.” She could barely speak.

This time he made love to her with a wild abandon that left her vibrating with bliss until she quickly came. He followed soon after.

Later, as she lay curled up with him, she tried to keep her eyes open, but it was a hopeless battle.

She wasn’t sure how much later it was when a creak in the floor woke her up. She saw Jake preparing to leave.

“Go back to sleep,” he said.

“You can stay the night.”

“No, I can’t.” His voice was curt. “I’ve got to go. You understand, right?”

“Sure.”
ot sure. Totally unsure.
“I understand.”
o, I don’t. I don’t have a clue. Does this
mean you regret having sex with me? That it was a mistake?

Jake returned to sit on the futon beside her. He threaded his fingers tenderly through her loose hair. “I can read your mind.”

“No, you can’t.” Could he? She sure hoped not.

“I can make a pretty good guess what you’re thinking. Guy makes love to you and then takes off.

What a rat bastard, right?” He sighed. “Look, I get nightmares.”

“So?”

“So I don’t want you seeing me that way.”

“What way?”

Guilty, vulnerable, torn up inside.
He feared the nightmares would come as soon as he fell asleep, and he couldn’t risk that. But Jake couldn’t admit that so he kissed her instead. One thing led to anther and soon he’d used his last condom and was embedded deep within her.

Dawn was stealing across the sky when Jake finally let himself out of her apartment, leaving a sleeping Emma behind and taking his nightmares with him.

Emma woke around noon to find the bed beside her empty and no sign of Jake. She was immediately struck by a surprising sense of loneliness at his absence. She reassured herself with the X-rated memories of the night they’d shared. After a quick shower and her usual breakfast she started feeling more in control and less of a hussy.

She told herself she wasn’t waiting for Jake to call her, but that was a lie. She looked across the alley, but there was no sign of him in his apartment. Instead she saw Oliver waving at her. Five minutes later, he was at her front door.

“Jake didn’t come home last night,” Oliver said before putting his hand to his mouth. “Uh-oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I just assumed he was with you.”

“He was.”

“That’s a relief. I never seem to say the right thing. If I knew as much about relationships as I do nanotechnology, I’d be in great shape.”

“How are things going with you and Lulu?”

“Not as good as with you and Jake.”

That was just it. Emma wasn’t sure how good things were between her and Jake. Oh, the sex had been incredible. At least she’d thought so. But maybe it was nothing special as far as Jake was concerned.

He’d said he wasn’t interested in other women, only in her. But what if he was only saying what she wanted to hear? He wouldn’t be the first man to do that.

He’d told her that he had nightmares and that’s why he couldn’t stay. Had that just been an excuse?

“Did I say something wrong?” Oliver asked her. “I didn’t mean to.”

“No, it’s not you: it’s me.”

“I hear that’s what a girl says to you right before she dumps you. That or they text you saying you’re a loser. Not that either of those two things has ever happened to me. You don’t think Lulu would dump me with a text message, do you?”

“She seems the direct sort. If she wanted to dump you, she’d tell you to your face, I think.”

Oliver nodded. “You’re right.”

“Why are you afraid she’d dump you?”

“It’s more that I’m afraid in general about relationships, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”
Only too well.
Emma didn’t realize how much fear had taken over her life.

It was as if the mugging had triggered a closet full of anxieties—had she picked the right job, the right research project, the right man?

Her inner pop quiz was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on her door. It was Jake and Mutt.

“I was just leaving,” Oliver quickly assured Jake.

“Take Mutt back with you.”

The dog bounced over to Emma and sat at her feet adoringly. She rubbed his ear. “He likes me.”

“He’s not the only one.” Jake sent her a heated look that just about sizzled her.